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Friday, October 30, 2009

My Experience with the Corruption of Medical Practices in America

It is with this blog entry today that I find myself very uncomfortable, saddened and angered so I felt moved to express it. My problem is with Medicine in America and with the way medical practitioners are trained and handle their practices.

The most recent issue we have had is with my child. My daughter has had a rash that has been on her skin and changing for the past few months. The first Doctor we saw about it said it was a form of eczema. He prescribed us cortisone and told us to use it twice a day for one month. When this did not work and the rash got worse and spread to other areas of her body I felt moved to seek out medical advice again. Having since changed residences and being the military, I therefore have no choice as to what Doctor I see or where. But trusting in health care professionals, I went in with a positive attitude and felt this would be handled correctly in our new home. The doctor we saw today did not tell me her name. She did not ask me about my child's diet, stress levels, potty training or sleep habits. She did ask me about her medical history and then simply prescribed us an arsenal of drugs and creams, five to be exact, for a 2 year old with a few small dry patches of red on her scalp and back.



This was not my worst experience with an MD to date, I have had MUCH, much worse experiences in the recent past. From my pregnancy and OB disasters to hospital delivery. I will briefly share my experiences to hopefully explain and possibly help anyone who might read this to take back control of your own bodies and try to please join me on this path of not settling and not putting up with this crap any longer. The crap I speak of is lack of concern and care for the humans in America. I have a few links to support my opinions at the end of this message and feel each link is vital information, so check 'um all out if you care at all about enjoying a life feeling good and healthy both mentally and physically.

My first bad experience with a medical professional was with my first OB when I first got pregnant with my daughter. To sum it up, he rushed in and out of the examining room each time we had a scheduled visit. He told me he would expect me to be induced if I was not showing signs of labor BY MY DUE DATE and have a c-section for absolutely no reason, he simply did birthing that way, routinely. And “when” I had a c-section he would gladly give me a “free tummy tuck” by cutting away a large moon shape out of the skin of my healing pregnant belly with a cut almost stretching from one hip bone to another. At this point, with my growing discomfort with this Doctor's practice, I asked a group of women in a prenatal exercise class if they had ever heard of this Doctor, I did not feel comfortable with him and did they know of a better one in the area? The response was overwhelming. I was told by these women, some of whom were nurses, to change my OB immediately. He had a bad reputation. So right away, at 30 weeks, I joined a group with one Doctor and one mid wife. They too, confirmed his bad reputation and told me he was known as the “five o'clock c-section” Doctor in the city. This nickname meaning, he scheduled all his births with his patients so as to be home by 6pm for dinner. He induced and did c-sections about 85% of the time. I had no idea of this statistic when I had originally picked him, through a friend referring me to the practice. He needs to be sent to prison, in my opinion, for mutilating women's bodies. Why did I attract, in my life, my meeting with this Doctor to begin with?

My next bad encounter with an MD was when I was trying to get a referral to return to my regular OB (who I finally found and loved) once our medical benefits had changed. I had to jump through hoops to keep my OB who I liked, once my husband joined the military and we went with that coverage. Yes, it is free and completely gives you any care you need, at any time....but....you have no choice on the Doctor, their opinions or how you choose to care for yourself or your child. I wont go into the experience I have had with this system in this entry, but you can probably tell how I feel about it! So I decided that having to go see an assigned family practice MD to get a referral back to my regular OB Doctor, could be a good thing. I would ask for a regular physical exam from this, my assigned general practitioner, while I was going anyway for a referral. I sat down at the “office that was closest to my house” (how nice of them for picking this one for me) the day of my appointment. I had felt a struggle with what I thought might be depression for the first time in my life, I had a mole I wanted to be removed, etc. I planed on asking the Doc about all of this and to go over my general well-being with me. Once I got in her office, they asked me my concerns and to fill out some forms and questionnaires. When the doctor finally came in she asked me if I had ever thought about killing myself. I replied, no. And she said, “you are a military wife, right?” Yes. “And your husband is gone right now?” Yes. She right then that moment wrote a prescription for me for some anti-depression medication, I believe it was Lexapro. She told me it was normal for women to feel depressed when they are Army wives and their husband's are gone and she lightly ripped the paper off the tablet pad and handed me my prescription with no questions asked, as she turned to walk out. No blood work, again no questions asked. Appalled, I handed it right back to her. I told her I was not interested in medication, she should save this for her next patient. Instead of arguing with an idiot, I got up and walked out. Her office forgot to enter in my referral. So weeks went by and I had not gotten to see, or talk to anyone about the concern I had about what was going on in my body. So, my anger was this: before writing out a crazy prescription, this MD did not ask me about my diet, exercise, stress levels or relaxation practices, my sleeping habits, my past health issues, if any (other than the form I filled out about heart disease and diabetes in my family) or anything! This woman had no clue if I drank alcohol, used illegal drugs, if I WAS BREAST FEEDING, or anything. I have never been so infuriated in all of my entire life. So I decided, screw regular Docs. They can have their pathetic practices to themselves and all the other sheep patients who are herded in and out and in their offices and blindly take and consume whatever they tell them to. So I started reading, I started doing my own research and I started with diet and hormones. And I discovered that my vegetarian diet I had been going with for a few months might have been dragging me down and not providing me with the proper nutrients I may not have been adding to my food. I also discovered the fact that weaning my baby from nursing at that very time was drastically changing my hormones, which I was not told by my OB to expect because I could never get in to see and talk with her with any insurance coverage. Yes, I probably should have told the general practice Doctor that I was nursing right at the moment she handed me the prescription but I was so astonished that she didn't even ask that I felt it was not worth it. She didn't care about me, OR my baby. She cared only about how much her malpractice insurance was costing her and how she'd better hurry off to the next patient only to shut them up and write a prescription for them so they could return in a month when they needed their fix of addictive chemicals again only to earn her and the pharmaceutical companies more money and more appointments and so on and so forth.

When we have a head ache, we go straight to the Advil not ever thinking, how much water have I had today? Did I eat at a restaurant that might have given me an ingredient I am not used to? How have my exercise and activity levels been lately, enough, too much? Do I relax often enough? Dr. Oz brought up a very good point on TV recently, we cannot deal with any pain in this society. We are prescribed away all the time, when pain is a gift, it is our body's way of telling us something is happening here in your system and something might be wrong. But also, pain is not always WRONG! Women go through labor pains and there is nothing wrong there! In fact it is so right! A baby is coming and your body is telling you that! I think the medical field in America has totally screwed us as humans completely. We have no idea how to read our bodies any more! We have no faith in our own bodies to work the right way, on their own. We have no instincts left to listen to. We have been drugged, pushed and rushed around for so long by the average Medical practitioner that we don't even know how to listen to our own bodies anymore at all. We have NO WELLNESS PROVIDERS, so where are they? I am not normally the type of person who gets on a soap box and preaches, but this is totally ridiculous. Where is our nutrition insurance? Insurance to see personal trainers and dietitians, massage therapists? We have to wake up people! With this subject I am up in arms, I am infuriated. And this intense anger has started because now in my life, it is not just MY body that is being abused, it is my daughter's too.

When we left my daughter's new, fabulous Doctor today, I did not know the practitioner's name. SHE did not know ANYTHING about my daughter before giving her all this chemical junk. She did not ask if we had just been through a stressful international move, if we were potty training, etc. I know what she needs. And it is not this. I could have offered my opinion but again, she was in too big of a hurry to listen to my thoughts on the subject or to ask me about MY questions. And so I am left feeling like most of the time, I have to diagnose my daughter on my own and this scares me, I am not a professional. But I do not trust any of the professionals we have ever been assigned, either. For now, my gut will guide me and this will have to do.

My daughter has been through tons of tests, ultrasounds, IVs, medications, and all of it has done nothing for her and all her tests come out negative when they think something is wrong with her. I know we need to rule things out and make sure it is not the worst in each situation, but come on people. From now on, I am going totally holistic, gluten free, milk free and I see an improvement in her body already from some past problems. I also used to give her a health drink, my pride and joy, Body Balance from my favorite health company Life Force International, which is a combo of aloe juice and a series of all existing sea vegetations packed with nutrients. I am quite sure once I get that product over here again, in Japan, her skin will heal and any other various problems will improve.

I think we attract everything in our lives for a reason. Sometimes, we attract “bad” things to teach us something we are not seeing about ourselves. Sometimes, we attract “bad” things in our lives to be teachers and lead others to see something they may not be seeing. I would hope this article helps someone out before something bad happens with excessive prescription drugs or a misdiagnosis. There are not enough Docs out there like Dr. Oz. The money involved with the health care and pharmaceutical industry are totally corrupt and not at all looking out for our BEST interests. I am not saying we do not need hospitals or medication for those with serious illnesses. I am speaking to the average, healthy human BEFORE things have gone drastically wrong. Lets spend more money and time on prevention and our well being than on our health insurance or nasty, heartless, surgically and medicinally trained Doctors. Lets turn our faith and attention to the wellness industry not the sickness industry and to the intuition of our own minds. This is my main reason for expressing my thoughts, this day.




http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/

http://droz.com/

http://www.lifeforce.net/products.php

http://www.yogajournal.com/




4 comments:

  1. This post has inspired me to become the healing, holistic health care provider you and everyone else needs! (not that I haven't been thinking about it for a while, lol.) I completely agree with you Becca and know that surely all of this is coming to you so you can share these crazy experiences with the whole world! I LOVE you. Hugs and Kisses to you and MB

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  2. Love you baby! Do not stray from your line of future work!! I shall join you some day :D

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  3. Aye, medical malpractice is like what, number 4 or 5 on the list of top causes of loss of life?? Taleb Kweli said it best, "learn how to heal yourself and stop f-ing with those hosptials"

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